Included in cards and even stuffed animals, the heart is the symbol of Valentine’s Day.
It represents love and happiness for many, but for Michelle Crawford it is also an annual reminder that received a second chance at life.
The 14 February 1992, when alone I had 10 years old, underwent a heart transplant that saved his life.
His family had been told he only had a few weeks to live, unless a donor was found.
“The consensus at the time was ‘we have to give this girl a chance, we have to help her’”, Michelle told the BBC in the 30 anniversary of the operation.
“They described the width of my artery like it couldn’t even be pierced with a match”, he added.
“There was really no blood passing through and the heart had a serious insufficiency, so, at any moment, he could simply give up”, he recalled.
Michelle with her grandparents June and Richard at Christmas in 1991, while waiting for a new heart. (Photo: MICHELLE CRAWFORD)Michelle was born with obstructive cardiomyopathy hypertrophic, a condition that caused her organs to fail, with cells that enlarged in the heart and obstructed blood flow.
Given her age, to protect her, they did not tell her everything about her situation. “Deep down I knew there was a sense of peace, almost a sense of acceptance that maybe I wouldn’t make it,” she said.
“The only solution, really, is a new heart“, the doctors told his family at the Royal Hospital for Children in Belfast, Northern Ireland in November 1991, according to Michelle’s account. She was from Derry, a city in the northwest of the British country.
“We didn’t even know what the term ‘transplant’ meant. In medical terms, I was not in a position to go through that operation”.
“That was the signal”
In February 1992, the night before the call that a donor had been found, Michelle said that she had a dream about a transplant where she was lying in a hospital bed with another girl.
“They took out his heart and then they put it in me”, he said.
“When I woke up and told my mother, I remember that her reaction was absolutely stunned”.
“I remember that both my parents and my grandparents said that this was the sign that I was going to have a heart and that would be fine“, added.
When the call came in the afternoon of 13 February, there was a window of four hours to v They traveled from Derry, via Belfast, to Harefield Hospital in London.
They arrived that night and Michelle was in the operating room for more than seven hours, until the early hours of Valentine’s Day.
When she woke up, the girl from 10 years old he could only communicate by writing notes, since he was receiving oxygen through a mask.
The notes that shared with the BBC reveal how terrifying and confusing the experience was for her.
“I’m scared”, said one, another: “I want my mommy and daddy here”, and: “Last night I did it hurt”.
“A lot of that is it was based on fear, that’s how I felt at that moment, it was petrifying“, he stated.
“I’m dead? I’m dying? What’s happening to me? I can’t breathe”, I thought then.
Michelle with her parents, Lorraine and Noel, in the second week of her recovery in the hospital. (Photo: MICHELLE CRAWFORD)However, the difference after the operation it was great. Michelle said that she vividly remembers seeing her “new me” for the first time.
“I remember when they woke me up. I woke up, sat up from the bed and my mother said: ‘Would you like to look at yourself in the mirror?’”.
“Actually, I couldn’t recognize the girl at all. little girl from before, I was completely changed instantly.”
“She had a fresh face and bright, I had rosy cheeks for the first time in my life, I had bright red lips”.
“I was full of life and that was very evident and I loved how I looked, because it was like my new me: beautiful, absolutely beautiful“.
A second birthday
Michelle said that Valentine’s Day has since become “a second birthday”.
“It is something that never leaves you, it is such a deep experience, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually”.
“I think it is incredible for me that it fell on such a special date and I feel very blessed with it”.
“It sounds very corny to say that I got a new heart on the Day Valentine’s Day, but if there’s going to be one day in the year, it’s the best! It’s perfect!”.
Michelle’s first post-op day it was about two weeks after the procedure was done. (Photo: MICHELLE CRAWFORD)
In early February, the Northern Ireland Assembly passed a bill to make organ donation compulsory from 2023, unless the individual expressly wishes.
Soon you will receive royal approval and it will be commonly known as “Dáithí’s Law” after Dáithí MacGabhann, a 5-year-old boy from Belfast who is awaiting a heart transplant.
Michelle urged her family to “never give up hope” and congratulated them on their campaign that led to the legislation.
“We have waited so long and it is going to give life and improve the lives of so many people who are waiting”, he said.
“I think he is an incredible boy”.
“Everyone is willing and can’t wait for that kid to have the new heart that deserves so much”.
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